Andrew Pyper

I’m teaching a workshop in Toronto this February.

It’s called “Power of the Pitch” and it’s all about how to make your idea for a story – something we often wrongly assume to be fixed – as strong as it can be. In the process, we will produce three documents that are increasingly crucial to finding success in publication: the outline, the verbal pitch script, and the cover letter.

Power of the Pitch Workshop

Had a day of events in Winnipeg and had a great time. The capper, though, was a night reading at the historical Dalnavert House downtown. In the attic. And the place is haunted through and through. Great vibe for a scary story.

(Check the place out next time you’re in The Peg).

 

Shelagh Rogers is a brilliant interviewer. Warm, open, casually conversational, she also goes to places in the book – and opens up her subjects – that are unexpected and rich. It’s why she’s the best in the business.

Here’s my interview with Shelagh for CBC Radio One’s The Next Chapter talking about The Only Child. All bumbling and mumbling are my own.

The Next Chapter – CBC Radio

Thanks so much to all who’ve helped make The Only Child a bestseller here in Canada.

It means a lot to know there are people out there who are interested in reading a new book of mine based on their reading of previous books. It also means a lot to know that some of you are newbies who heard about it – or maybe just saw it on a bookstore shelf – and thought “I’ll give that spooky-looking number a try.”

Virtual champagne all round!

 

Wanted to share a feature review of The Only Child in today’s Toronto Star.

It makes it sound like the kind of book I’d most definitely want to read. If I didn’t already know the story. And knew where all the ideas came from. And the research the author did. And hadn’t written it myself.

“Pyper upends genre conventions once again…a high-concept dark fantasy novel. Lily’s journeys with a monster who inspired the very literary tradition Pyper so skilfully exploits provides…a satisfying confrontation with darkness, both personal and mythological, that readers expect from the best horror.”

— Toronto Star

The Only Child – Toronto Star review

Okay, so maybe I’m leaning a little too hard on the birth/children metaphors here, but when you’ve written a novel called The Only Child and it’s now out in stores, it’s pretty hard to resist.

If you like the gothic, or existential thrillers, or Frankenstein or Dracula or Jekyll & Hyde, or a spooky beach/dock/sofa read regardless of its category…The Only Child is for you!

Hope you get a kick out of it.

I’ve made some updates to the Appearances page here, so check it out and come on by, wherever that may be.

There will be more such dates and details to come soon…